The historically neutral Switzerland has been raising eyebrows of late, thanks to the recent military drills the country has undertaken.
Though Switzerland maintains a robust military force, with mandatory military service for Swiss men, they typically have kept their drills to their airfields or military bases.
But on Wednesday, as Agence France-Presse reported in Barron’s, Switzerland undertook a drill that practiced a wartime maneuver for the first time since 1991.
Known as an Alpha Uno exercise, the drill involved the Swiss air force using its F/A-18 fighter jets to practice landing on a stretch of the highway instead of a runway.
The drill shut down one of the main motorways, the A1 highway between the towns of Avenches and Payerne, for 36 hours. The objective was to ensure that the air force could continue operating even if their bases were hit.
They also noted that, while this particular sort of exercise was not unusual for NATO, it was unusual for Switzerland, considering, again, this had not been done in over 30 years.
Taking off from the military base in Payerne Wednesday morning, the F/A-18 used for the test landed uneventfully at 10 am that morning.
Video: Fighter jets take off and land on highway in Switzerland
Alpha Uno exercise ensures the airforce can operate if its bases are hit during a conflicthttps://t.co/JwIZjIF3dH
— Gulf News (@gulf_news) June 5, 2024
The Swiss government also noted that the exercise was undertaken because most of the Swiss air force’s assets are concentrated in just three air bases: Payerne in the west, Meiringen in the central area, and Emmen, near Lucerne, according to Reuters.
Will we see Switzerland go to war in our lifetime?
Yes: 33% (2 Votes)
No: 67% (4 Votes)
That, the government said, makes the country’s military vulnerable to long-range attacks.
Therefore, they decided to work on decentralizing their air force and military assets, rather than allowing the chance of their entire military getting taken out by one potential attack.
That said, the Swiss government and air force were perhaps not just preparing for a hypothetical future war.
Rather, as Newsweek noted, the exercises were partly in response to the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the fear that those tensions may spill over to the rest of Europe.
🇨🇭SWISS: HEY LOOK, WE CAN LAND OUR JET ON A HIGHWAY…
For the first time since 1991, Swiss fighter jets successfully landed on a motorway in a security rare drill aimed at testing emergency operations from improvised locations.
Pilot Alain von Bueren after landing his F/A-18… pic.twitter.com/KdPofzWvXJ
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 5, 2024
Likewise, between 2027 and 2030, the Swiss government is planning to phase out its fleet of outdated F/A-18 fighter jets for a $6 billion fleet of 36 F-35 stealth fighters from the U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
Was this Alpha Uno maneuver a sign that Switzerland will finally break its longstanding stance of neutrality, a stance they have adhered to strictly since 1815?
Most likely not.
Part of what has ensured that Switzerland has lasted as long as it has, while other nations have risen and fallen all around it, is the country’s refusal to fight on behalf of other states.
That is what enabled Switzerland to survive for hundreds of years virtually unchanged.
The country’s impressive military likewise made other countries think twice about attacking them.
These maneuvers do not mean that Switzerland is going to war anytime soon.
Still, in war, impending or otherwise, it never hurts to be prepared.
